Borussia Dortmund consolidated their place at the top of the Bundesliga with a 5-0 rout of 10-man Freiburg on Saturday.
Bayern Munich’s 1-0 win over VfL Wolfsburg at the Allianz Arena means Pep Guardiola’s second-placed side remain level on 19 points with Dortmund. Jurgen Klopp’s team have a superior goal difference.
Dortmund ran riot at Signal Iduna Park with Germany winger Marco Reus and Poland striker Robert Lewandowski scoring twice before Polish midfielder Jakub Blaszczykowski added the fifth.
Photo: EPA
“I was already happy with the first-half. We had wanted to find our rhythm from the first second, which we did,” Klopp said. “We put in a good performance and it was a lot of fun to watch.”
Dortmund broke the deadlock on 35 minutes when Lewandowski’s shot was blocked by Freiburg goalkeeper Oliver Baumann, but Reus was on hand to tap home.
Freiburg’s fortunes took a sharp downturn when Senegalese center-back Fallou Diagne was sent off after hauling down Lewandowski and Reus drilled home the resulting spot-kick in the 47th minute.
Lewandowski then netted his fourth goal of the season when he held off two defenders to chip the ball over Baumann with half an hour left.
The Poland forward — who has said he will sign a Bayern Munich contract in January with his Dortmund contract to expire in June — then added his second when he converted a Jonas Hoffmann pass on 70 minutes.
Dortmund, who host Marseille in the Champions League tomorrow looking to bounce back from their 2-1 defeat at Napoli two weeks ago, added the fifth when Blaszczykowski pounced on a wayward back pass and fired past Baumann 10 minutes before the whistle.
The defeat keeps Freiburg at second from bottom and still looking for their first win this season.
Ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League match against Manchester City, Bayern stuttered to a 1-0 win over Wolfsburg.
“We won, but we must improve a few things,” said Guardiola ahead of the trip to Manchester and next Saturday’s Bundesliga clash against third-placed Bayer Leverkusen.
Bayern needed an hour to break the deadlock as Germany star Thomas Mueller netted his first Bundesliga goal of the season when he met Franck Ribery’s pass from the left wing at the far post.
Bayer Leverkusen stayed third, just a point behind Dortmund and Bayern, with a 2-0 win at home to Hanover 96 as Germany midfielders Simon Rolfes and Sidney Sam scored first-half goals.
Leverkusen’s Sami Hyypia host Real Sociedad in the Champions League on Wednesday and deserved the win having peppered the Hanover goal with 17 shots compared to the guests’ seven.
Ex-Holland boss Bert van Marwijk made his debut as Hamburg coach with a 2-2 draw at Eintracht Frankfurt as the Hanseatic side twice came from behind with Marcell Jansen scoring a late equalizer.
Van Marwijk, who steered Holland to the 2010 World Cup final, saw Hamburg pick up their first point in three matches to climb out of the bottom three up to 15th.
“From our perspective, it was a deserved point,” captain Rafael van der Vaart said. “We played with a new system, sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.”
Schalke, who play FC Basel in the Champions League tomorrow, were held to a thrilling 3-3 draw against Hoffenheim while Hertha Berlin moved up to fifth after beating Mainz 05 3-1.
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